Is AI making us lazier?

Not exactly. According to Harvard cognitive scientist Dr. Tessa Forshaw, feeling lazy when you use AI is your brain being efficient. Brains try to save energy, so they hand tasks off to other things, like AI. The risk is that skills you stop practicing can fade.

What is cognitive offloading?

Cognitive offloading is when you hand a mental task to something else, like AI, to save brainpower. Our brains use about 20% of our body’s energy, so they look for shortcuts. It isn’t a character flaw, but offloading too much can weaken the skills you stop exercising.

Can using AI hurt your critical thinking skills?

It can. When we offload tasks, we skip the thought patterns we’d use to do them, and our skills can atrophy. In one study, experienced doctors who used AI to help spot precancerous bumps caught fewer of them when they later worked without it.

What is metacognition, and why does it matter when using AI?

Metacognition is higher-order thinking that helps you monitor and regulate your thoughts, feelings, and actions. It helps you choose what to offload to AI and what to keep doing yourself. Studies have started to show that people who are metacognitive with AI use it better.

How do you use AI without losing your skills?

Dr. Forshaw suggests three steps: Notice how you’re feeling, name what you just did and whether it’s what you wanted, then navigate by changing your strategy. For example, ask AI for two versions to compare, write down your own thoughts first, or swap AI outputs with a colleague for feedback.

How to Use AI Without Losing Your Critical Thinking Skills

Victoria here, Girlboss’ executive editor. 👋

AI is making us more efficient, but is it also making us lazier and dumber? Embarrassing thing to admit, but I’ve felt it too. I can get so much more done (I no longer have to transcribe my hour-long interviews manually!), but my ability to come up with a quippy subject line for this very newsletter or brainstorm off the top of my head has gotten rustier. And that is terrifying! 😨

So, I asked a Harvard cognitive scientist how to use AI without letting your brain turn to mush. And if it makes you feel any better, she struggles with it too (and she studies this for a living!).

Other stuff the Girlboss team is talking about on Slack:

Uh oh! The prebiotic soda boom might be fizzling.
It doesn’t get any scarier than these very niche nightmares. 😆
You don’t have to do everything on your to-do list yourself. Post a job on Upwork and get a $50 Visa gift card after your first hire.*

💼 Job of the day: “All eyes on me in the center of the ring!” 🎪 Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group is hiring a Marketing Manager, Las Vegas Resident Shows to drive awareness and ticket sales for some of the biggest productions on the Strip! You’ll never have a boring day at the office in this role. 🤸

How to Use AI Without Outsourcing Your Brain, According to a Harvard Scientist

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